On Thanksgiving Day I was visiting my family of origin. However, I wasn’t there this year to talk turkey. I was more interested in showing off the first mock up for the cover of Tripio. https://www.amazon.com/Tripio-novel-Starbucks-Millionaire-Novelist-ebook/dp/B07NQ1413V . On the screen of my laptop was the image I was so proud of. This was a real book cover with my name on it as the author. I explained to my family of origin that it was only the first mock of the cover. It would get better. There was still work to do. It was a process. I began to feel like the person who saves up a joke he has heard that he was sure was going to get a laugh. Then he tells it, and has to explain it. In other words, I did not get the reaction I was hoping for. These people all read. They read a lot. They were hungry. Maybe I should have known my audience better and waited until after Thanksgiving dinner for my big reveal of the cover.
The drive home the next day was the perfect opportunity to think over the lukewarm response to my cover. I must have been deep in thought because at one point I spilled my coffee on my lap. Not good, but it was cold brew so it could have been worse. Once I found a rest stop and changed into a dry pair of pants, I was able to re-engage my mind. With a dry crotch I was able to do some more thinking on the previous day. I had been shaken. I had started the process of doubting the cover, the book and everything connected with Tripio. It was very easy to to break Tripio apart.
Then I thought of Legos. I remembered my sons as young boys building Lego towers. I remembered a few times when a painstakingly constructed tower was accidentally knocked over. It took a good deal of time to build that tower and no time at all for it to be destroyed. During the couple days after I closed my laptop at Thanksgiving, I saw Tripio as a crumbled Lego tower. All that work for nothing.
As I was doing the laundry that Sunday an image came into my mind. It was of either of my sons after their tower had fallen over. They had had a moment of anger but it had passed. Now they were reaching into that pile of Legos to start the tower all over again.
“May I help who’s next in line?”
Comment now or think it over-both would be appreciatiated.